The Ice Prince
by Archduke of Bad Ass
Summary: The son of Princess Anna nearly destroys Weselton and is banished from Arendelle for a span of ten years. He and his crew travel the seas helping others and learning about eachother and themselves on the way. But can they overcome the obstacles in their way?
1. Prologue

**Here is my prolog to The Ice Prince. I hope everyone enjoys the story!**

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><p>Our story ends with Elsa learning to control her powers, Anna falling in love with Kristoff, Prince Hans being arrested and brought back to the Southern Isles, and (usually how these stories go) every one lived happily ever after (except Hans). However no one ever thinks to go beyond the happily ever after point and figure out whether or not it was actually happily ever after! Fortunately it was for the small royal family of Arendelle. Princess Anna married Kristoff, and had two children with him. Elsa never married; however, she became like a second mother to the young prince and princess. Hans was said to have escaped the custody of his twelve brothers and their father and disappeared, never to be seen again in the Sothern Isles.<p>

Anna and Kristoff, as previously stated, had two children. Their oldest, Princess Anneliese (ah-ne-LEE-zə), was the spitting image of her mother, and their youngest, Prince Adelbert (AH:-dəl-bərt), bearing a very close resemblance not to his father but to his aunt, Elsa. Adelbert was the heir to Arendelle's throne. Despite rigorous political training he seemed to favor the sword over diplomacy and often got into many political messes during trade negotiations because of it. His sister, while slightly less brash and definitely less violent, was not very well suited to the throne either, as she was a poetic and somewhat melodramatic personality. Elsa took a large amount of time teaching politics to her nephew, seeing that he was next in line to the throne, and took even more time teaching him about how to use his powers. She spent so much time with her nephew that he seemed to look up to her as his mother instead of Anna. This tends to cause unrest between the two otherwise peaceful and supportive sisters.

Adelbert was very eager to learn how to control his abilities, not so he could use them to assist the kingdom as Elsa did, even though at times she forced him to do that, but to make sure that they were not noticeable to anyone who didn't initially know that he had them; he would take every precaution, all the way down to covering his hair, and even his skin at times, to make sure of that. Adelbert had a strong disliking for special treatment; his father had affected him greatly in that way, so he didn't like special treatment because he was of royal blood. He tried to do everything on his own without help from any person or magical power which would be at his disposal.

However these were troubling times for Arendelle. Weselton had grown very angry at Arendelle for their trade embargo against them and from what intelligence they could get from countries that still traded with Weselton, they were growing in power and had just gained some new "leader" for their military. Many people in Arendelle knew (or claimed to know) that the queen had angered the Duke of Weselton and that he was going to attack at any minute. However, most people in the government, including Adelbert, who was usually the one to believe these sorts of things just for the hope for proving himself in a fight, didn't believe that the Duke would be so bold as to attack a nation as powerful as Arendelle. Even so, Arendelle was not in any position for a war; they had no military allies and only really had a defensive military to protect them when needed. If war was coming to Arendelle, it would find them unprepared.

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><p><strong>Well there it is! I will try to get the first chapter out very soon so that ou guys can read it ok?<strong>


	2. The Battalion

**Well this is my first chapter, Yay! I am hoping that you all like my story and I will try to get out chapters ASAP. Enjoy!**

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><p>It was a bright Monday morning starting the second week of August. The sun shown dimly into Adelbert's room through the window curtains which made a beam of light that rested just a little bit underneath his chin. The red curtains and rug on Adelbert's floor lit up like fire as the light passed over them, showing off the elegant blue and gold colored designs woven into them. A clock echoed in the corridor five times, Adelbert's usual alarm to wake up. His crystal blue colored eyes opened tiredly as he sat up in his bed, trying to figure out where he was. He yawned and scratched his pale hair as his mind started to reboot. Then his memory flashed back to him; today was the battalion's formation day.<p>

This was the day that the commanders of the army welcomed the new recruits to the castle. Adelbert had been waiting for this day since he was sixteen, since being a royal he automatically got a higher placement in the military. He usually didn't like being given special treatment, having argued for a lower rank to begin with. However, the joy of the day made it impossible for that to bother him. He had been preparing for weeks just so that he would look professional in front of the two hundred and fifty young men that he was placed in charge of training. He put his dress uniform on very carefully while making sure that every decoration he had (which wasn't much) was in the right place, grabbed his hat, put on his uniformal gloves and nearly sprinted down to the dining room to eat his breakfast. He came up to the gold-brown doors of the semi-large dining hall and put his full wait into them, making his entrance awkward as the door handles escaped from his hands, giving that the gloves allowed little to no grip on anything, and making a loud boom as they hit either side of the doorway. His mother Anna, his sister Anneliese and his good friend Adalwolf, who had been named the captain of one of the two one hundred and twenty-five man companies that had been placed under Adelbert's command, were all there. They all looked at him when he entered the room, semi-simultaneously, which made Adelbert double take. After a moment of silence Adalwolf and his sister returned to finishing off what looked like their breakfast, and his mother walked up to him and kissed him affectionately.

His mother's golden-red hair was braided in its usual way, making it look a lot shorter than it really was. She wore a simple green dress which brought out her blue eyes, and looked as though she had walked into the room at the same time he did through the door on the other side of the room. Adalwolf was wearing a dress uniform similar to Adelbert's, with his brown hair looking as tangled and dirty as it could possibly get after an attempt to comb it. Adelbert was thankful that the dress uniform had a black kepi that could cover his friend's head so that he would not become an embarrassment to the army. Then there was his sister Anna. She and Adalwolf were sitting at the table, at a very far distance from each other. Adelbert could only see her blue eyes and golden-red hair with just a little bit of the rusty orange dress that she was wearing over the table, but that was enough to know that she was not happy to be at the same table as his obnoxious friend.

"How are you doing this morning honey?" asked Anna.

She was smiling at him in that amused motherly smirk that she directed at him with whenever he was in uniform.

"I'm doing fine mother." he said.

"Well that is good," Anna said, "there is some sausage on the table for you, and I believe Elsa had the gates open for the new recruits an hour ago. There are a lot of them here already."

Something was wrong; Adelbert woke up when the clock in the corridor near his room struck 5:00 as usual. Either he had a very devoted group of men under his command or he was late.

"Why are the men so early?" he asked.

"Because you slept in!" cracked Adalwolf.

Adelbert was about to panic at the thought that he was late for the formation of his battalion, when Anneliese caught sight of the emotions going across his face and answered what he was inevitably going to ask, standing up and walking away from Adalwolf with haste as she did so.

"Don't worry," she said "the clock in the corridor to your room stopped, it is eight o'clock now, and you still have two hours."

"Thank goodness!" cried Adelbert "I don't know what I would have done if I was late to the battalion's formation!"

"I could have improvised." said Adalwolf.

"And seeing you try to improvise would be the last thing this world needs." said Adelbert.

Adalwolf was about to make one of his snappy comebacks when Queen Elsa came into the room. She was wearing a blue dress with a maroon trim. Her snow white hair was in a long braid that rested on her shoulder and her face was pale as it always was. She noticed Adelbert and Adalwolf and her attention went straight to them.

"There you two are! Are you both ready for the battalion's formation?" she asked.

Before Adelbert made his reply, Adalwolf decided he would answer for him.

"I don't know about sleepy-head here, but I am ready." said Adalwolf

Adelbert, on a normal day, would have made a sarcastic retort to this, but today he decided not to and just let it go.

"Well, you are both supposed to be getting things organized down in the courtyard. Most of the men are there already and General Dietrich needs all of the help he can get for keeping things orderly down there." said Elsa, her tone seemingly scolding but amused at the same time.

"We will leave immediately." said Adelbert.

"Well, before I go shall I steal a kiss from the beautiful princess?" asked Adalwolf hopefully.

The response he received was a slap on the cheek and a very nasty comment about his breath. Adalwolf made a mock insulted expression and sauntered off, grabbing Adelbert by the arm in the process and bidding him to leave with him, both putting on their uniform hats as they did so. The two walked out of the dining room to head out to the courtyard, Adalwolf's face still throbbing.

"Why do you antagonize her like that? I'm beginning to think that you like to get slapped!" said Adelbert.

"I guess in a way I kind of do." said Adalwolf "Your sister is quite attractive!"

Similarly to his sister, Adelbert responded to Adalwolf's rude comments by giving him a firm slap up the back of his head.

The two friends arrived at the courtyard with a frantic General Dietrich to greet them at a little wooden podium in the middle of the courtyard that had been built for the higher ranking officers who were attending this ceremony to make their speeches on. Dietrich, who sounded more like a field mouse now then a field general, bombarded Adelbert with questions about where he had been. Even if Adelbert had been three days early the general would probably be just as frantic and angry at Adelbert as today, seeing that he had a great disliking for men of royal blood who had higher positions to start off with, which was the only thing that the two ever agreed on. It was his way to be frantic all of the time; even when there was nothing to worry about he always had some reason to be nervous. Adelbert hated to think what would happen to this man if he was thrust into commanding the royal army during a war.

"Why are you late? Are you ready to form the battalion? Do you expect the royal army to stand still and wait for you to eat your breakfast?!" shouted Dietrich.

His line of questioning was very out-of-place seeing that technically, Adelbert wasn't late. However, he decided to just go along with the general and answered him in the way that would let his nervous mind have something to pick at.

"The clock in the corridor to my room stopped." he said "I slept in by accident."

"Slept in by accident!" shouted Dietrich "The future leader of our military and country slept in by accident! Some general you will make!"

"We are still on schedule and I can ensure you that it will never happen again." said Adelbert, a little defensive of himself now.

The general looked at him with venomous eyes for a few moments until he remembered why he was angry with him in the first place.

"There is no time for this now, you men go along to Colonel Schmitt and get your instructions!" snapped Dietrich as he stomped off in the other direction.

The two young officers found the elderly Colonel who directed them to the positions that they would be in for the ceremony. Adelbert was placed a few feet away from the dead center of the podium with the hauptfeldweibel and deputy commander of the battalion standing behind him to his left and right, and Adalwolf was placed twelve paces away and to the right of Adelbert, with his company officers standing in positions similarly to the men standing behind Adelbert.

They took their positions and waited for the battalion formation to begin. During his wait, Adelbert looked around the courtyard to get more comfortable with the situation. He saw many young officers and not as young non-commissioned officers standing in areas respective to where their companies would be when formed, waiting like he was for the general to permit them to begin the formation of their units. This of course took another hour to happen as the general was busy trying to make sure that the civilians who were not joining the army were kept at a decent distance from the new recruits; getting in the way of the men he had ordered to do just that in the process. Adelbert saw many young men standing in a massive confused mob at the center of the courtyard. They were just as impatient as Adelbert was with getting the ceremony going, which was apparent by a group of the men taking joy in dunking each other's heads in the water of the courtyard's two fountains. Then Adelbert looked over in the direction that civilians were standing and found his family and several other nobles, including the attractive Countess Carina, watching the event progress. Adelbert stood gazing in the direction of his family for a short amount of time when they all noticed him and waved in his direction. He acknowledged that he saw them and returned his full attention to the task at hand.

After nearly the entire morning went by, the general finally got the ceremony started by introducing himself as Captain General of Arendelle's Royal Army and going through his speech of how proud he was of the men for making such a commitment as to join this great organization's ranks. Dietrich's speech alone could have lasted the entire day, as he had the tendency of going off on tangents. Fortunately his speech only lasted an hour, which was short for him, and he handed the soap box over to Colonel Schmitt, who introduced himself and his deputy commander and informed the men how their lives would be like when they joined the army.

After much time spent on introductions and speeches the colonel handed Adelbert and his company commanders charge of the men. Adelbert then shouted to his subordinates to get company formation started. He wasn't technically supposed to do much at all with the formation of the companies but he was bored so he ran right in there with Adalwolf and helped anyways. It took the small group of officers several hours to get the men settled down, organized into companies, fitted for their uniforms and taken to their newly constructed stone barracks, but eventually Adelbert and his officers pulled it off in record time. It was a long day full of yelling and confusion that pretty much everyone who was involved with it was very glad to see end. It pained Adelbert to think that most of the two months that would be devoted to the men's training would be very similar to this day, as it took so much out of him.

He walked tiredly into his room of the palace, wrinkling the red rug on his floor as he got dressed to go to sleep. He fell on his bed, making a rather impressive thud sound as he did so, and lazily rolled himself into the covers. He gladly accepted sleep after that day, seeing that there was going to be two months of training these soldiers ahead of him, and that sleep was not going to be a permanent privilege for him in those coming weeks.

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><p><strong>Please review! I need to know how you guys like this chapter! Oh and for some ranks that sounded a little to modern for the time period, I wrote their german translation down so that it would sound more authentic. So don't think that some words are huge mispellings because they aren't, they are just german military ranks (or ranks loosley based off of the ranking systems of the modern Swiss Army and Imperial German Navy of WWI, and yes I took the time to figure those out for a fan fic, what can I say? I"M A MILITARY BUFF!). <strong>


	3. Learning Process

**Sorry this one took so long, my editor was slow, (no offence) but here is chapter two! And my viewer's lack of reviews is desterbing to me! Please review guys! I need your guidence on my work! **

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><p>It had been two months since Adelbert had come of the age to take military position. In that time he had taken command of a battalion of infantry and of an old navy corvette. He never thought that being an officer would be more trying of his patience than being an enlisted man was, but if the two months (or one and a half) that he had been in command taught him anything, was that being in command was difficult. So difficult that there were times that Adelbert envied the men under his command for being enlisted.<p>

Adelbert originally thought that he would be doing exactly what the men were doing on their day to day training. The problem was that he could only stand on the sidelines and watch the men do their exercises. As boring as his job was though, Adelbert liked it and was very devoted to it. However, Colonel Schmitt never let Adelbert do anything on his own. The man was an experienced officer, and Adelbert took his hints and tips to heart, but the man didn't seem to want to trust the young prince with anything, and it didn't help that Eberhard von Blau (one of Adelbert's lifelong rivals) was the regiment's deputy commander. Their insistence on never letting Adelbert do anything alone left him unable to show his leadership skills, or even figure out how to use them, was somewhat crippling to Adelbert's military carrier. He sensed a great deal of hostility from Schmitt. He didn't know whether it was his blood, age, or abilities that caused this, but he didn't understand either way. On this day however, Adelbert had the rare opportunity of not having the colonel watching over his every move; he escaped the colonel and von Blau's watchful eyes due to the general going on one of his raging rants, which most officers in the entire army were inflicted by. Adelbert never thought that he would once, in his entire life, thank the heavens for this man's idiotic temper, which went off like a canon at the smallest things. But today seemed to be that day, and Adelbert used this opportunity to go and supervise the companies' training.

Adelbert found Adalwolf's company performing maneuvers in the little space available to them outside of their barracks and decided to follow them around for a while to see how they were doing with their training. He caught them in the middle of performing some semi-advanced pike drills and by the look on Adalwolf's face, they were not performing them at top quality. They seemed to have been doing this drill for some time seeing that the men were just as frustrated as their captain was with it. It was apparent that this was the most complex one they had learned as of yet, seeing that most of the men forgot the order that each movement of their weapons went in and the little that did remember hesitated to follow the commands given or greatly anticipated them. Adelbert wasn't even intending on interrupting his friend's session of instruction, but the watchful eye of the company's sergeant major saw otherwise and brought his presence to the attention of Adalwolf. Of course Adalwolf beckoned Adelbert to come closer, which he did gladly as the two hadn't had much time to speak to one another in a couple of days.

Adalwolf was wearing his officer's uniform with a black blouse that had brass buttons and light blue trousers, but unlike the uniforms of the other officers nearby, including Adelbert's, it was wrinkled and covered in mud which flicked into his face as he gestured for Adelbert to come forward. Adelbert determined that this mud came from the large mud-hole which was right next to the entrance of the enlisted men's barracks. He had a hard time keeping himself from laughing or making sarcastic remarks to Adalwolf as he walked to him.

"What do you think of them?" Adalwolf asked, as though nothing was wrong.

His pleading brown eyes showed that he needed a compliment to keep himself from tearing his own hair out.

"They are progressing at a fine pace." said Adelbert, lying.

"Well, do you have any suggestions for my officers and I while you are here sir?" he asked again.

Adelbert didn't really know how to respond to the question without insulting Adalwolf, his men, or his subordinates when he could clearly see that this particular company of men were not catching on to their advanced training very quickly. He adjusted his kepi and thought of a way to sugar coat his words.

"I have not been able to watch your training for a long enough period of time to make a perfect review of you and your men's performances," said Adelbert, "but they are clearly in need of a little… I might say… brushing up?"

The young prince didn't mean for this to come out as a question, and it apparently wasn't what the men, or even Adalwolf, wanted to hear, as Adelbert heard many tired sighs emitting from the four lines of troops and their captain in front of him.

"Why don't you just say that we're terrible like everyone knows we are, and give up the gentleman act!" screamed a man from the second element.

The sergeant major immediately spun around and called for the man (seeing that the experienced soldier knew who the perpetrator was instantly suggested that this was not the first time that man had done this) and called his name.

"Bisig! Front and center!" barked the sergeant major.

"What did I do wrong?" the man asked innocently.

"You spoke out of turn! Front and center!" cried the experienced sergeant.

The man who had spoken fell out of formation and marched right up to the non-commissioned officer and stopped at a perfect position of attention in front of him, slamming his pike into the ground as he did so. The sergeant major then looked to Adelbert and respectively offered the ability to punish the man to him. At this moment one of the company's lieutenants ordered the men to at ease, all one hundred twenty-five pairs of eyes directed themselves towards their prince.

The man looked short compared to Adelbert's tall, thin shape, had light brown almost blond hair, a smug face, dark eyes, and pasty white skin, all of which looked out of place in his grey enlisted-men's uniform. He looked at Adelbert in a way that made him even more nervous than the entire company staring at him. He found it hard not to gulp out of nervous habit and even harder to look the man right in the eye.

Adelbert was scared to even think of the situation. This was the first time were he could actually act as the commanding officer, since Colonel Schmitt never let him get into a position like this without him or von Blau to supervise. This time he had no superior looking at him, but something even worse; his men. This was a do or die moment, the impression that he left on the men here would start his legacy in the royal military for the rest of his days. His thoughts went blank, perspiration started to run down his face, and there was a soldier standing in front of him that was staring at him, unafraid waiting for his commanding officer to speak his sentence. Adelbert gained the strength to speak again with an idea that came to him at the last minute, straitened his kepi again, cleared his throat, and spoke.

"What is your full name soldier?" he asked, trying to sound as intimidating as he could.

The man hesitated, his confusion at Adelbert's question showing clearly on his face.

"Answer the question gefreiter!"shouted the sergeant.

Adelbert shot a disapproving glance towards the sergeant major for stepping in when not called for, then returned his gaze back to the soldier in front of him, and repeated his question.

"M-my name is Gefreiter, Bastian Sieghard Bisig sir!" responded the man.

He was clearly nervous of this awkward line of questioning.

"Why did you see the need to speak out of turn when your battalion's commander was walking by Gefreiter Bisig?" asked Adelbert, keeping his icy blue eyes locked on the man's face.

"I-I…" Bastian was about to speak when the sergeant major cut him off.

"Because he sees his words as the life force of the world sir!" said the sergeant, mockingly.

Adelbert simply turned his head to the sergeant and stared at him for a moment.

"Did I ask _you_ sergeant major?" asked Adelbert.

"Well sir…" Adelbert cut off the man's speech with a raised hand.

"Answer the question sergeant did I or did I not ask the gefreiter and not you?" said Adelbert again with force in his voice.

"I guess that you did sir." responded the sergeant major, a little resignedly.

"Then I would suggest that you let the man speak for himself and keep your comments for when they are called for." said Adelbert.

He surprised himself at the very respectful nature with which he spoke to the man, even though he would usually lose his cool over someone interrupting someone else's speech when unnecessary. At the same time however, Adelbert secretly thanked the man for his untimely outburst, even though it was out of line, since it gave him a very useful window of opportunity to gain the respect that he was aiming for between him and his men.

The sergeant major simply nodded and looked away from Adelbert towards the company of men to silence a small outburst of giggling as the men saw the irony of the sergeant major being reproached for something that he had called almost every single man there out for.

With a little more courage given to him by Adelbert's chastisement of the sergeant major, Bastian answered the question that Adelbert had given him with a small grin on his face.

"It was kind of like what the sergeant major said sir," he said, "I was just trying to make my mind known… sir."

Adelbert almost smiled. This man seemed to be of the right sort. He was one of the very few men of the group who was actually performing his maneuvers properly when Adelbert had been spying on them, and he definitely knew how to show his respect to those who deserved it. He almost reminded him of Adalwolf in a way, with his sarcastic face, his mischievous smile, and his sense of humor which was a quality that Adelbert just knew that they must have shared. He couldn't just punish him right then and there when this was the first act of this kind that he had committed within Adelbert's view, but he also couldn't just let the man go scot-free without some sort of repercussion for what he had done either. He stood there, thinking for a moment when he got an idea.

"I'm not going to punish you for telling the truth!" he said.

At this the sergeant major and the rest of the men present, excluding Adalwolf, gaped at Adelbert with surprise, not expecting a highly ranking officer, especially a prince, to let a man off that easily. Adelbert noticed their response to this and continued speaking, but this time redirecting his speech to the entire company, stepping forward as he started.

"It is true," he said, "and even though this man spoke out of turn and deserves to be reprimanded for his actions, he was right. You men need to get some more training in so that you can perform these maneuvers when they count and so that I don't have to watch over my company commanders' shoulders all of the time. I should congratulate this man for pointing out the mistake I almost made by barely saying anything at all!"

Adelbert took a small pause to see if what he was saying was sinking in. The men's confusion still showed greatly on their faces, making him somewhat unsure of himself. He looked back at Adalwolf to make sure that he was on the right track and was reassured by his friend's sly grin and went on.

"Now Gefreiter Bisig, I am going to give you a reduced sentence, you will only have to wash the floor of your platoon's barracks, but if you ever speak at will without authorization by your superiors again, I will permit the sergeant major to "allow" you to clean the entire battalion complex. Is that understood?" said Adelbert.

"Understood fully sir!" responded Bastian, energetically.

His smile had grown from ear to ear in light of his getting it off easier than he had expected, and only having to clean his barracks, which Adelbert was sure would have been only the beginning of the sergeant major's decision.

"Fall back in then! You are dismissed." said Adelbert.

"Yes sir!" shouted the gefreiter as he marched back to his original position within the company, sarcastically smiling at the sergeant major as he passed him.

Adelbert turned around to see Adalwolf standing directly behind him with his sarcastic smirk on his mud ridden face.

"Well you definitely resolved that one in an interesting way." he said mockingly, "Now I guess that I will have to do something better than that to get the men to like me more then you eh?"

Catching on to Adalwolf's invitation to a battle of wits, Adelbert replied with a simple:

"Your move!"

To this Adalwolf's smirk turned into a wolfish smile and he turned back to his men to restart the day's maneuvers.

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><p><strong>I hope you all liked it! Please review! Only three reviews have been made of this story so far, two of them from the same person! I need reviews out of the hundred something people who are reading my work! And don't gripe about my calling the over shirt of the male military uniform a blouse ok? I just picked that up from Civil Air Patrol and I will stick to it! FYI a kepi is a uniform hat used by millitary and police forces of many nineteenth century European countries, it is kind of a shorter version of the shako which was also used at that time. A common example of a kepi is the standard hat used by federal and confederate forces of The American Civil War. <strong>


	4. Nervous Thoughts

**Well here is the third chapter! I hope you all like it! I definately did, it is the first chapter where I actually got to focus on Adelbert and Anneliese's relationship, which is something I have really wanted to do since I published this story. Summer break is comming up so I hope that when it arrives I will get a whole lot more chapters out a lot quicker (depending on how fast my editor wooks, shoots accusing glance). Again Wolf no offence just witty banter! Well I better stop my mind quick or this author's note will be as long, if not longer than, the chapter itself. Enjoy!**

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><p>Adelbert was walking through the palace one afternoon, not sure what to do. Training had finished for the day and there was nothing that he or anyone could do to entertain him. So he just walked through the corridors and rooms of his home, often retracing his steps in a very large circle. He had confidence in his men, but as a commanding officer he had little confidence in himself.<p>

So Adelbert dealt with his nervous mind in the way he always did; he walked. His brain unconsciously thinking through his problems as he paced through the palace unaware of whoever might be watching him and staying far away from anyone his wondering mind might have noticed. He avoided the rooms whose doors were shut, seeing that even with the best control anyone could ever have over his particular abilities, when he was like this they became a little unpredictable. He learned this fact through many occasions where he would open a door to find the knob frozen when he let go, or accidentally froze something that a servant was carrying. Adelbert was about to finish his fifth circle around the palace when he ran into his sister, Anneliese.

She was wearing a simple, afternoon dress composed of a light violet colored silk. She looked as though that she was wandering in a similar way to him. Adelbert accepted her company even though having someone to talk to was something he didn't particularly want at this moment.

"What has you so worried?" she asked after she walked with him for a few minutes, "I haven't seen you like this since you lied to father about putting holes in his sleigh."

Adelbert both admired and loathed his sister's ability to read anyone like one of her books. He sighed and tried to find a way to avoid the subject.

"I'm just nervous I guess." he said.

"Nervous about what?" she asked.

Adelbert rolled his eyes and sighed again trying to make it clear to his sister that he didn't want to talk right now by not speaking at all.

"What are you nervous about?" she asked again, more urgently this time.

Adelbert was feeling a little frustrated with his sister now, and seeing no other way around the conversation, decided that he would answer her.

"I'm worried about my men," he said.

"Is there a reason that you are worried about your men?" she asked.

For this Adelbert had no answer; he really didn't have a reason to be worried. He knew that his men were well taken care of and had the best training any soldiers could ask for, but for some reason he was still worried. He hated feeling this way, because feeling this way made him think that there was nothing he could do, and that was definitely something he didn't want to ever happen. He thought for a moment, trying to find a way to answer his sister's question as she patiently waited for him.

"I'm worried that they will not be ready for their graduation, I'm worried about what will happen to them after their graduation; I guess I'm just worried about every aspect of my men in general."

Anneliese looked at him for a moment. Undoubtedly formulating some piece of advice to give him on his situation.

"Are your men ready to graduate?" she asked.

"Yes they are- I think. They have definitely progressed in their training." said Adelbert, his voice unsure.

"Then why are you worried about them? If they are ready, then they should be able to graduate with flying colors, shouldn't they?" said Anneliese.

"Well yes it's just- I'm not sure if they will be up for the Warriors Path." said Adelbert.

"It's just a hike up and down the mountains," she said, "if they are as good of a group of men that you say they are then they should be able to pull through it."

"Yes but- it's just- I don't know- I just don't have a good feeling about this. What if I can't lead them through this? What if I let them down?" responded Adelbert.

"You just worry too much brother." she said. "You've done that all of your life, you just need to let yourself calm down and not get too worked up over everything."

Adelbert looked at his sister for a moment, which he almost regretted when he nearly walked into a door. She smiled at him, half out of pity and half out of amusement. He smiled back and the two walked onward for a moment only to be stopped again by Adalwolf, who was carrying a plate full of food. He smiled, after intentionally placing a piece of meat in his mouth that was way too big for him to chew, and greeted the two royals through his full orifice.

"Tup ov de morning to yu." he said, revealing the half chewed roast beef in his mouth as he tried to preannounce his words.

Anneliese held no amount of disgust back as she observed the captain's eating habits. Adelbert sneered in a mock-revolted way as he saw a piece of the meat fall from his friend's mouth to the floor. Even though they both knew that Adalwolf would do this just for the mere pleasure of irritating them the siblings felt a bit of bile come to their mouths as Adalwolf bent over, picked up his fallen prey, and placed it back into his, already over stuffed, mouth. Adalwolf just looked up at the distressed royals with and innocent and rather hurt face.

"Wot?" he asked.

Anneliese responded to the muffled question with vigorous disgust in her tone.

"You pig! Were you raised in a barn? Swallow your food before you speak!" as she said this, Adelbert noticed a little bit of amusement in her eyes.

"Sowry!" he responded, swallowing painfully as he did so, "I would think that you would be quite used to that by now, seeing that I have lived here since your brother and I were three."

"You had better table manners then rather than what I have just witnessed!" spat Anneliese.

Adalwolf made a childish face and snorted at her.

"Well, good to see that I've beaten all that court etiquette mumbo jumbo out of my-self then." he said.

Anneliese simply made a resigned sounding sigh and face-palmed. Adalwolf, seeing his victory in this argument, directed his attention to Adelbert, taking another bite of meat as he did so.

"Sow," he said through his food again, "wut ar yo two dong hur?"

"We were just walking through the palace. What are _you __doing _here?" said Adelbert, accusingly.

Adalwolf swallowed and spoke.

"I was just returning from the dining room," he said, "I forgot something and so I brought my plate because I didn't want the servants to take it back to the kitchen."

Anneliese glared daggers up at Adalwolf as he said this, and opened her mouth as though she were going to speak when Adalwolf cut her off.

"Hey, no angry eyes at me! I won that argument fare and square!" he mocked.

As a retort, Anneliese angrily stomped off into the direction of the dining room, muttering something to herself about how such a man could get a position of command over so many men in the military. Adalwolf looked satisfied at this and yelled pleadingly back after her.

"You would leave without a goodbye kiss?" he asked, in a sarcastic way.

Anneliese just glared murder back at him before making a sharp turn around a corner in the corridor. Adalwolf just laughed and returned his attention to Adelbert, who was not particularly pleased with his friend's method of flirting with his sister.

"You really do have a death wish don't you?" Adelbert asked, in an un-amused sort of way.

"As I said before your sister is quite…" Adalwolf's statement was cut off by the instinctual slap up the back of his head delivered by Adelbert.

"One of these days I will break through to her heart with my _charm_!" mock-shouted Adalwolf while he grasped the back of his head in pain.

"Ha- you- charm" said Adelbert "You couldn't even get her to dance with you, much less break through to her heart." retorted Adelbert.

"Oh well if it's dancing you want, I know your sister's _favorite_ dance!" said Adalwolf, triumphantly.

"So do a lot of other people." said Adelbert, "Other people who have a lot more of an understanding of a woman's feelings than you."

"Oh _I_ have no understanding of feelings? Compared to you I am a genius when it comes to things like that, mister have-a-crush-on-someone-since-you-were-twelve-and-not-even-get-the-nerve-to-talk-to-her!" cried Adalwolf.

"I have more than enough nerve to talk to her I just haven't found the proper moment to strike up a conversation." Adelbert said, in an attempt to out-bravado the most macho man in all of Arendelle, "And if you're such the expert on this sort of thing. Prove it."

"Fine! I will do just that! I bet I could get your sister to dance that very dance with me at the ball for the officers of our regiment that is coming up." retorted Adalwolf.

The ball was intended to celebrate the completion of the men's training. It was an occasion that his sister, as a member of the royal family, would have to attend. Adelbert made a mental note to warn his sister of his friend's plan before he could set it in motion, though he exceedingly doubted that his sister would ever except an invitation to any dance, much less one given by this particular young knight.

"I would lick the dirt off of your boot if you could do that!" spat Adelbert.

He didn't intend on making a bet with his best friend about his sister, but it just blurted out of his mouth before his brain could stop it.

"Well then I accept your wager!" snorted Adalwolf.

"Deal!" said Adelbert, "But if you lose, you have to lick mud off of my boot!"

"Challenge accepted!" cried Adalwolf as he strutted off to find whatever it was that he needed for his lunch, reciting romantic poetry (undoubtedly practicing for the ball).

Adelbert walked in the direction of the dining room, as he found himself suddenly hungry. He mentally scolded himself for making a bet on his sister's romantic life as he made his way to the large oak doors of the dining room. He put it out of his mind and proceeded into the room. However, as he entered it, the anxiety of his men's graduation crept back into him. He still didn't feel that he had what it would take to lead these men, but he was determined to make sure that by the time they had finished the Warrior's Path that he would be ready.

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><p><strong>Hope you liked it! By the way, the officer's ball that I mentioned will be in a chapter all of its own, so I will go into as much detail as you all want about it then. Please review! <strong>


	5. Preparations

**I'm so sorry that this chapter took so long. It wasn't even supposed to exist origionally, but I had to write it to make sure that what the next few chapters had in it was proporly explained and that called for a new chapter. And for me to make up a cultural tradition compleatly from scratch and still try to get it close to the cannon of the movie was not all that easy. I will try to get the next chapters out a lot faster, this one just required a lot more devotion and time. Enjoy!**

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><p>It was the last week of the regiment's training period. This week had been the slowest of all the others, seeing that the men had absolutely nothing left to be taught and a lot more to review. This week was primarily for the preparation for the legendary Warrior's Path. By far the oldest military tradition kept by the royal army to date. The way it was conducted was almost exactly how it had started three hundred years ago and it was the last leg of the men's training.<p>

Adelbert, as an officer and a battalion commander, was going to be charged with overseeing the instruction of the men and the officers of his battalion of this ancient tradition over the week. The problem was, that as an officer fresh out of the Royal Military Academy and still in the "training period" of his commission, Adelbert, with all of the knowledge that he had taught himself about the path, could not teach the other officers in his battalion without the supervision of a higher ranking officer. If it had been Schmitt, Adelbert could have at least tolerated it, since he had gone on The Path five times in the past and knew what he was doing. However, Schmitt did not take on the responsibility of teaching (or assisting Adelbert teach as the colonel liked to call it) Adelbert's battalion's officers about the traditions behind The Path. He left this duty to his deputy commander, Eberhard von Blau.

Lieutenant Colonel Eberhard von Blau. That title alone was enough to make Adelbert reconsider his bid to start his officer training below the usual rank for royals, which was at the rank of full Colonel. Adelbert went through with his plans however, which placed him as a major in the 14th infantry regiment and only one step underneath von Blau. One minuscule step that made Adelbert's eternal rival his superior, when in uniform. The two had never gotten along as children. The fact of Adelbert being the crown prince to the Arendelle throne always seemed to escape the young viscount as he repeatedly berated him about his pale white skin and hair and the two always seemed to get into trouble, even though the only one at fault was usually von Blau himself.

To say that the two had their differences would be an enormous understatement. In Adelbert's younger years, the von Blau family would make many visits to the royal palace on political matters. Sure enough as the sun rose and set every day Eberhard, Adelbert, and Adalwolf would get into their scraps, resulting in bruises, cuts, tears, and on the last occasion where they fought physically a trip made to Grand Pabbie to remove ice that had been implanted in the young viscount's brain. The last fight had given von Blau a massive grudge, (how he kept that grudge was anyone's guess since his memory of the event was conveniently wiped from his memory in the healing process) that he had carried with him for nearly twenty years but that he finally found a person to vent it towards. Since he was a lieutenant colonel and Adelbert only a major he had almost all the authority in the world to do as he pleased and not get rebuked for it. Adelbert nearly blew up at Schmitt when he informed him, with a sadistic smile on his face, that Eberhard would be his supervising officer when he gave the lower officers in his battalion the briefing on the traditions that they would have to drill into their men's heads. The only response he got for his pleading that the colonel himself assisted him was:

"Sometimes, no matter _what_ title we bear, we must _all_ do things that we don't like to do _major_." the aged officer said indignantly, "Any petty disagreements that _you_ and von Blau have had in the past are just going to have to _stay _in the past so that you may provide the proper education for the —lesser— officers."

Schmitt seemed to almost enjoy the fact that he got such a reaction from Adelbert when he gave him the news. Adelbert had even wanted to remind him that the disagreements that he had so thoughtlessly labeled as "petty" had nearly gotten his current second-in-command killed as a child, but remembered that that incident was supposed to be brushed under the rug and let it go. All they had to do together was teach the lower ranking officers what they needed to know so that they could teach the men under their command about The Path. Which Adelbert could already guess wasn't going to end well seeing that von Blau insisted that he knew more than God himself when he really didn't know much of anything at all. He nearly had an anxiety attack just thinking about having to stand in front of the twenty-one commissioned officers, and countless superior non-commissioned officers of his battalion with that big mouthed dunderhead. He just set his mind to getting the task at hand done so that he could go about avoiding von Blau like the plague again. As he made his way to a large room in his battalion's complex known unofficially as "the meeting room", even though it was properly the men's mess hall, Adelbert just said a silent prayer that this training session did not end with screaming officers running for their lives from a full out fist fight.

Adelbert marched up to the double doors of the large building, marked "ENLISTEDMEN'S MESS HALL". He paused for a moment, feeling the sense of anxiety washing over him as he listened to the commotion coming from inside the room. He had grown more accustomed with instructing his men, over the few times he had the opportunity to do so, but he still felt nervous when presenting something to them. He was even more nervous knowing that these weren't just the normal enlisted men he was used to instructing either, these were officers. Some a little more familiar to him from his time at the Royal Military Academy, some definitely more seasoned and experienced, and all critical and watching his every move. To top it all off, he was ten minutes late and was most definitely going to gain some sort of public chastisement from von Blau about it. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself down and opened the left door, attempting to stealthily enter the room in an attempt to avoid detection.

To Adelbert's utter horror, the sergeant major of Captain Specht's company noticed Adelbert's entrance and called the room to attention. All of the men present, officer and enlisted, immediately froze in place and stood completely erect. Adelbert's mind went into overload. He had been caught coming to his own seminar late and no doubt von Blau was going to humiliate him in front of the entirety of the battalion's staff. He felt his head go cold—er than usual, and perspiration started to run down his face. _Why did that man have to be standing next to the door? _ He thought to himself. _Why did he have to call the rest of the men to attention? Why didn't they just go about their conversations without notic—. _Adelbert stopped his frantic chain of thought for one second and surveyed the room. _Wait why were they just standing around? Why did they come to attention when I am not the highest ranking officer in the room? Shouldn't von Blau have started the seminar already? Where is he anyways? _These questions and others like them proceeded to bombard his mind as he thought through his situation, barley even noticing the concerned looks coming from Zimmerman, the hauptfeldweibel of his battalion, Specht's sergeant major, and several other officers whose eyes were positioned towards the doorway.

"Sir are you alright?" whispered Zimmerman, "You look as pale as death."

Adelbert took a moment to compose himself and survey the room again. After another, less panicked search of the room, Adelbert found that every color of epaulette for non-commissioned or commissioned officer was present in the room. All accept a gold epaulette on the left shoulder. He felt himself relax as realization came to him that von Blau wasn't present while mentally kicking himself for losing track of time like that. After he was completed with his search he gave the order "As you were" to his men, allowing the populace of the room to return to its previous state. A few of the officers and NCO's that saw Adelbert as he entered still approached him to ensure that their commander was in good health though.

"I'm fine." said Adelbert to Zimmerman, ushering him away from the curious eyes of the other officers as he did so, "Where is Colonel von Blau? I thought I was the only one who was late?"

"I don't know sir all I know is that he was spotted running off with some young lady a while ago. Do you know how long we have been waiting?" responded Zimmerman, a little brashly.

"About ten minutes?" asked Adelbert.

"Try about twenty sir." deadpanned Zimmerman.

Adelbert gaped at what he had heard. _Impossible, the seminar was supposed to start at nine thirty and it is only nine— _Adelbert looked up towards the grandfather clock that stood at the far end of the room to support his case— _nine forty five. _The little color that was in Adelbert's face disappeared again as he realized that the grandfather clock in the corridor to his room had been off by nearly twenty-five minutes. In the few seconds of sanity he had left he made a mental note to burn that clock when the next opportunity presented itself. His breathing became more rushed as he began to feel light headed. Zimmerman immediately started to calm him down.

"Don't worry sir; if the ranking officer is late then you're on time! That's my motto!" he said encouragingly.

Adelbert started to calm himself down at this and managed to ask the aging NCO a question.

"So you don't know where von Blau is— at _all_?" he asked.

"Well sir, Specht did notice him running off with the young lady that I've already mentioned towards the officer's mess. Don't ask me what they were doing; any man who knows the _Lieutenant Colonel's _reputation regarding the opposite gender should be able to figure that one out on their own!" responded Zimmerman.

Adelbert felt himself blush at the subject matter and quickly changed the subject, noticing Adalwolf making his way towards him as he did so.

"In your opinion," he said, "should we start without him or wait for him to arrive?" Adelbert almost saw a smile of pity, like the one you give a small child who is trying to figure a complicated problem out on their own, come onto the seasoned NCO's face as he said this.

Zimmerman opened his mouth to reply when Adalwolf, who had reached them, cut into the conversation.

"Without him!" Adalwolf said, "At least you showed up! Let's get this over with! I want to sleep!"

"You always want to sleep! Besides, you can't sleep through the history lesson this time! You have to teach this stuff to your men _remember_?" exclaimed Adelbert.

"Well why do we have to go over this stuff again anyways? We already had to go through it at the Academy! Why do it twice?" retorted Adalwolf.

Adelbert almost screamed out of frustration at his friend as a result of his ignorance to the importance of this subject.

"Because," he said through his teeth, "The men didn't go to the Academy like we did. They don't know anything about The Path! Now if you will kindly turn around as I am trying to have a private conversation!"

Adalwolf snorted and put his nose up into the air while crossing his arms. Trying to look snooty but instead ending out looking ridiculous.

"I agree with Captain Klug-Ritter sir!" said Zimmerman, "If that horny _whelp_ can't get to his own seminar on time then he should be left out of it entirely!"

Adelbert took the advice from the two individuals who he would probably present with higher titles and ranks when he became king for being the only high ranking men in the army that weren't complete idiots and marched up to the front of the room with Zimmerman. The aged hauptfeldweibel swiftly called the room back to attention and ordered the men to take their respective seats. These said seats being in mismatched lines in front of a little podium that Adelbert was standing behind. Adelbert took one moment to look over his situation again. If von Blau didn't show up (however much he would enjoy that) he would have to do the whole seminar on his own. Even though he had been one of the very few officers of his class at the Academy that had read more than the required curriculum about The Path, he still didn't feel confident enough in his abilities to teach said material, seeing that this was the first time he had done so. He looked down at Zimmerman who was waiting patiently for him to excuse him to sit back down. He gave a rushed "thank you" and motioned for the man to return to his seat near the front of the large gaggle of sitting officers before beginning.

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><p><strong>So, officially the first two parter chapter I have written. It has a lot to do with the story arc that is comming in the next three to four chapters, so be ready. As always, please review! Even if the reviews are not positive I can take it! I need you guys' help to improve my writing! My mind is wanderig while at the keyboard again. Better stop before I write down that I'm going to have pizza for lunch today... See! See what did I tell you!? Ok read, review, and, favorite my story (you don't have to do the last part if you don't want to). I emphasize the review part. And enjoy the rest if I ever post it!<strong>


	6. Preparations: Part II

**Ok, so quick little thing aboutthis chapter, it and the first part of Preparations were origionally supposed to be the same chapter, it's just that I split it up so that it would not be enormously large. But enjoy nontheless!**

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><p>Adelbert hesitated. He scanned the back of the room hoping to see the doors open and reveal von Blau so that he could at least have some shoulder, however cold it was, to lean on. With his search coming to no avail, Adelbert opted to proceed with the seminar solo. <em>This will be a good experience. <em>He thought to himself. _I will need to do very similar things like this as a higher ranking officer or as a king one day. I did it at the Academy for leadership class I can to it again! I can do this! Right? _He opened a large book that was titled "A Condensed History of the Royal Arendellic Military" and found the page that started the history about The Warrior's Path.

"Let's begin on page twenty-five ." he said uncertainly.

Almost simultaneously, all the men in the room opened their copies of the book in Adelbert's hands to the page that he indicated. After waiting a small moment to ensure that all the men were on the right page, he began.

"I— In approximately the year 835 A.D." Adelbert said, with his inner anxiety pushing through into his speech, "A group of Germanic warriors from the island that you know of today as Arendelle were persecuted by the more pagan clans of the south and north and forced to retreat from their homelands into the mountain range to the west of their settlements."

Adelbert stopped for a moment, cringing at the nervous monotone that he spoke with as he presented the material. _How can I make this a better presentation? _He silently asked himself. An idea came to the prince's mind as he pondered this and he put it to use.

Adelbert walked out from behind his podium and started to walk around the room while he said, "Those people were known of by their prosecutors of neighboring colonies as traitors by their conversion to Catholicism and were ultimately persecuted by the neighboring pagan clans until they were chased from their lands entirely." Adelbert took a few moments to survey the room and then started up again, "Now it is rumored that our fair Kingdom of Arendelle's name originated from some sort of combination of the clan's leader's name and their religion but do not ask me about how that happened as my linguistics are about as good as Captain Adalwolf's here when he tries to speak at the dining table with some form of decency— so we shall move on to the rest of the lesson."

Adelbert heard a few short chuckles from his audience as he finished his speech and noticed an overly accentuated look of hurt pride on Adalwolf's face. Knowing that this was a sign of his friend formulating a snappy come-back to respond to him with, Adelbert took this as a go ahead to proceed with as much of the lesson as he could before he was rudely interrupted. The young prince was about to do just that when he heard the obnoxious voice of his friend coming from behind him saying:

"I resent that!" Adalwolf retorted.

Adelbert waited a moment in silence waiting for Adalwolf to make one of his come-backs. When no reply came he asked out of confusion.

"No come-back? I really took you _that_ off guard? You always have a come-back!" Adelbert proclaimed.

"I'm saving them for later." he responded derisively.

After rolling his eyes, Adelbert returned to his lesson, tuning out the murmurs of conversation that were going on in the crowd.

"Now let me ask you an easy question." he said, "You should all know the answer to this since most of you are either very experienced, have graduated from the Royal Military Academy, or have spent way too much time around Hauptfeldweibel Zimmerman."

The room burst into joyful —yet restrained— giggles. Seeing that Zimmerman had a very bad habit of droning on about pretty much everything, all of the battalion's staff, and a few of their enlisted-men, knew all too well the humor based off of a shared pain that Adelbert's dialogue made a reference to. Adelbert walked towards the front row of chairs, getting an expression from Zimmerman that was between humorous and murderous. Unable to read the aged NOC's body language, Adelbert just proceeded on with the presentation. Still feeling the experienced man's eyes bore holes into the back of his head, he quickened his pace to get around him. He came to a stop near the third row when the laughter died down and resumed asking his question.

"On which side of the bay did the ancestors of our great nation take refuge in?" he asked.

"On the Western side of the bay!" Adalwolf blurted out before Adelbert could pick a volunteer.

_Of all the things he would remember from our time at the Academy that was it? _Adelbert thought to himself. He responded to his friend's outburst with his usual cold, emotionless stare. An expression that had somehow become an urban legend among the men of his battalion without his knowing and had even earned the nickname of 'The Freezing Stare', undoubtedly making a reference to his aunt's powers and not his own, seeing that none of the enlisted men knew of them. _Great instead of coming up with smart-ass remarks he is going to just try and foil my presentation to the men by blurting random stuff out! Perfect! _He thought to himself again.

"Captain Klug-Ritter." Adelbert said firmly.

"Yes sir?" asked Adalwolf in astonishment from the firm voice of his friend.

"In the future, could you allow _me _to choose who is to answer the questions of my seminars?" Adelbert asked in a commanding tone.

A sly grin crept onto Adalwolf's face as he responded, "But of _course_ sir."

Adelbert took his gaze off of Adalwolf and surveyed the room to try and find a way to save his presentation. He gained a stroke of luck in the most unlikely of places as he spied over to the section of chairs to the left of the small aisle dividing the men from each company if the onlooker were behind the podium. In the third row of that section he found a man dozing off on his fist as his arm leaned on his knee. _Am I that boring that I got a man to fall asleep in the first five minutes of my presentation? _He asked himself.

He straitened his posture to full length and briskly walked over to where the sleeping man was sitting and stopped two inches away from the edge of his seat. He looked down at the man to find that the epaulettes on his shoulders were both white and hand no bullion fringe on their ends representing the rank of ensign. This unexpectedly caught Adelbert by surprise. Yes he was a lower ranking officer but if he had expected any of the men in this room to fall asleep he would have expected the very fresh sergeants or maybe even Adalwolf to do so. Not a commissioned officer.

He bent lower to place his eyes at the level of the man's face and gave a deafening snap of his figures. The sound resonated throughout the room and into the man's ear drum as he awoke with a start. The laughs of the other officers accompanied this as the young boy, who looked much younger than Adelbert himself, grew an expression of absolute horror as he recognized the face of his crown prince and commanding officer hovering about half a foot away from his face. This new air of dreadfulness was accompanied by the boy's brief shriek of terror followed by a very bad attempt at recomposing himself.

Many more laughs came from the officers as Adelbert straitened himself up and asked in a pitying/amused voice, "Have nice dreams sleepy?"

Knowing nothing else to do, the young officer nodded his head in compliance.

"Well then, seeing that you were the only person who didn't hear _someone's,_"Adelbert directed his glare towards Adalwolf as he said this, "blurting out of random answers to my questions without being called on, would you like to answer my question for the entire room to hear?"

The boy nodded again, more nervous than before.

"Alright then," Adelbert said, lightening his tone as he took a few steps away from the ensign, "Which side of the bay did the Germanic warriors, who are the ancestors of this great nation, at the time of their expulsion from their homelands retreat to in order to hide from their pursuers?"

The ensign stood from his chair, standing at the position of attention as he did so, and started to hastily formulate an answer.

"T—To the N—North side s—sir?" the boy asked.

The sounds of several disapproving grunts and sighs from the crowd informed the inexperienced officer that his answer had been incorrect. He started to sweat so hard and breathe so loudly that Adelbert found it in his heart to forgive the boy, though he would have done that anyway, and answer it for him.

"The bay does not have a North side Ensign, for that would lead into the open ocean." he said, "The correct answer is, as Captain Klug-Ritter has so, _graciously_ pointed out to us, the Western side of the bay. That is where we are going to be hiking for three weeks gentlemen so you better get used to the idea."

Adelbert looked at the young ensign, who had already taken his seat and was sitting more rigid than rock, and felt the need to amend whatever mental scars he had left the boy with.

"Don't worry it's not your fault, just don't fall asleep again and pay attention. Got it?"

The boy hesitated for a moment before speaking again.

"Got it?" Adelbert repeated.

"Yes sir!" the boy exclaimed.

Adelbert walked away from the young officer towards the direction of the podium, and was about to begin his lesson where he had left off when he saw a hand raise out of his peripheral vision. He turned around when he saw it and found a man in the second row of the grouping of seats that was opposite to Adelbert with a green bullion fringe deprived epaulette buttoned on his left shoulder marking him as a sergeant with his hand in the air.

"Yes what is it?" Adelbert asked.

The sergeant stood at attention and spoke.

"Sir, if you don't mind my asking of a relatively unrelated question. Why is it said that the ancestors of the Royal Family are from Norway when your family's last name is Germanic?" the sergeant asked.

"Because my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather was a nobleman widower from Norway who just happened to bring most of his still living family with him from Norway." Adelbert said.

"Then why is your name still Germanic?" the sergeant asked.

"Because there is an age old tradition of the royalty of Arendelle that a person of royal blood would never change their surname even in the event of marriage. Does that answer your question?" Adelbert responded again.

"Yes sir. It was actually more than I expected." he said.

"Now let's continue on with the lesson before I start portraying even more aspects of our dear Hauptfeldweibel." said Adelbert sarcastically.

The room rumbled with laughter for a few moments again before the prince continued on.

"Gernot Kalbfleisch was made the leader of the exiles mostly by his ability to do so rather than anything else. He lead the group of an estimated nine hundred-fifty to a thousand people through the mountains, making sure that they would be camped in the right places to find food and water, and easily defendable as not to be caught by their pagan pursuers." Adelbert stopped reading from the book for a moment as he started to walk around the front row of the left grouping of chairs, "Can anyone guess why the traditions behind The Path calls for no food to be taken with the unit in question when on it?"

He personally thought it to be a stupid question, seeing that the men should all know at least this much of the tradition but asked it anyways for reasons even he couldn't understand.

"Because the Army is cruel!" cried Adalwolf.

Adelbert just simply rolled his eyes and bent down to the level of a quartermaster in the front row and said to him loud enough for the entire room to hear:

"He interrupted every teacher he ever had at the Royal Military Academy like that. It is very surprising to me that he graduated, wouldn't you agree?" he asked the man.

"Indeed sir, I do." The quartermaster responded.

Adelbert stood and looked over to where Adalwolf was with a sardonic grin on his face. He was responded with a raspberry from Adalwolf and an indignant frown.

"It's surprising that you haven't punished the captain with all the things he has done sir!" came a voice from the back of the room.

Adelbert turned his head to try and find the source of the voice, but seeing as it came to no avail he just answered to the entire room.

"I have to live with that every day. One gets used to having to just ignore him for fear of losing their sanity!" he responded to the unknown voice.

The room was filled with small spurts of laughter here and there which sputtered out as quickly as it came. A master sergeant that was sitting behind and to the left of the quartermaster that Adelbert was positioned in front of stood to attention after the laughter had died down and requested permission to answer the question.

Adelbert straightened himself up and responded, "Of course. We need to get this lesson along anyways so that we are done before sunset."

"Because the people who followed Kalbfleisch had to provide for themselves when they were in the mountains and it is only fitting that we do the same to honor our ancestors." the master sergeant said.

"Correct." responded Adelbert.

Walking away from the quartermaster, Adelbert continued with his seminar.

"Now about two weeks into where we will be hiking on The Path, is a place that has been named, 'Schlucht von Vorahnung'. Can anyone tell me what happened there?" Adelbert said.

Adalwolf shouted in response, "Kalbfleisch was ripped a new one!"

Adelbert face palmed and stood there with his head in his hands for nearly three minutes before the lieutenant sitting next to Adalwolf spoke to him.

"Sir? Are you ok?" he asked.

Adelbert took his hand from his face and glared daggers at Adalwolf for a moment before answering the officer.

"Lieutenant." he said, "Would you be so kind as to give a firm elbow to Captain Klug-Ritter's diaphragm please?"

"My pleasure sir." The man said before delivering the designated blow.

"Thank you." Adelbert said while looking at his friend who had his hands on his stomach and was gasping for air. "Do it again if he speaks out of turn."

Adalwolf glared daggers back and Adelbert who replied to his grim expression with a crooked grin. After he was sure Adalwolf would not throw something at him, Adelbert proceeded with his lesson.

"Is anyone besides the captain going to give me an answer?" he asked.

The hands rose again. Adelbert took special notice of the ensign that he had just woken a moment ago raising his left hand and decided to call upon him.

"What's your answer sleepy?" he asked.

The ensign blushed from embarrassment and rose to attention.

"That is the valley where it is said that Kalbfleisch was given holy premonitions about how to lead his people sir." He young officer said.

"Maybe we should rename you brainy instead of your previous nickname." Adalwolf muttered high enough for most of the room to hear.

"It is less embarrassing than sleepy!" exclaimed Zimmerman.

"Should I hit the captain again sir? He is speaking again." said the lieutenant that was sitting beside Adalwolf, a little too enthusiastically.

"If you do that again so help me—!" responded Adalwolf.

"Wait for when he tries to interrupt again Lieutenant. Now be quiet so that I can get on with this!" said Adelbert.

"Yes sir." responded the lieutenant, giving a mischievous glare to Adalwolf.

"Your answer is correct Ensign." Adelbert said to the young officer.

The officer smiled then retook his seat. Adelbert then walked towards the podium again and started to speak in more detail about this part of the seminar.

"The gorge itself is about thirty miles across. And twice that distance long. It is the lowest point in all of Arendelle and has a very deadly history of flash floods in the summer and fall." Adelbert said.

"Well that is just our luck sir!" cried another voice from the crowd, "It just so happens that we are going in during the fall!"

"That would be our incentive to move through it as fast as humanly possible." Adelbert responded.

Another hand rose from the back row of the grouping of chairs where Adalwolf sat, catching Adelbert's gaze.

"Yes what is it?" he asked.

"Is it true sir?" asked the man when he stood.

"I what true?" Adelbert responded.

"The dreams sir. Is it true that some men still have dreams in that gorge?" the man asked again.

"Well I'm sure that people still dream when they are there eh… what is your rank?" Adelbert asked the man.

"Specht sir. I'm Captain Specht. Can't you see my epaulette?" he responded.

"Sorry Captain just an error of my eyes." Adelbert said.

"An error of your eyes or an error of your— oof!" said Adalwolf while gaining another elbow from the lieutenant.

A small smile spread across Adelbert's face and he proceeded with answering the captain's question.

"There have been a few reports from some veterans who went on The Path of dreams similar to that of what was assumed that Kalbfleisch had on his journey. However to discover that answer you will just have to go on the trip and see for yourself." said Adelbert.

"I guess I will sir." responded Specht.

Adelbert walked towards the back of the room and performed an about face when he reached the end of the aisle, facing his voice towards the men.

"Now, it is written in some sources that the group spent two of their years of exile in the Gorge of Foreboding and it is said in others, more notably the book that we all presently have copies of, that they spent just a little over a year in it." Adelbert stated, "It is a very commonly debated fact amongst historians. So debated that neither theory is confirmed nor discredited, it really just depends on the book you read. Even though it would make my job a lot easier if there was just one way of thinking about it."

"And which idea do you side with sir?" asked Zimmerman.

"I think that it was probably something more like a year and a half. But since my opinion doesn't matter when teaching you about the traditions that we need to keep for this I will proceed with the lesso—" Adelbert had almost finished when the doors to the room opened, slamming into the wooden walls of the mess hall and revealing none other than the Prodigal Colonel himself. Eberhard von Blau.

Adelbert turned to see the cause of the commotion and instantly called the room to attention when he recognized the sniveling twit standing before him. There was a great noise of chairs being pushed back and boots thumping on the floor as the men stood and froze. Adelbert stood there, nervously glancing at his superior officer as he stood in the doorway. _Probably basking in his "grand entrance". _Thought Adelbert to himself. Von Blau strutted his way to Adelbert's position, his lone golden epaulette glistening from the sunlight that was provided by the windows. He stopped a few feet from Adelbert and just stood there, sneering at him like a spoiled child who just got his way before putting the room to at ease. Simultaneously, all of the men in the room parted their feet and placed their hands behind their backs, keeping their eyes locked of the spot of the wall that they were staring at while at attention.

"Weren't you supposed to wait for me?!" von Blau demanded in his usual nasally voice.

"You were gone for over twenty minutes sir." Adelbert answered, "So I took an executive decision and decided to move on with it so I could get as much of it done as possible."

"You are not an executive here _major_!" von Blau snapped.

"I was a second ago _sir_." Adelbert retorted, "And if I may ask, what took you so long?"

Eberhard had a smug look on his face that lasted for all of three seconds and said, "That is none of your concern! I had other— business to attend to."

It was when Eberhard said "business" in the way that he did that made Adelbert look at his superior's uniform. It was all wrinkled and dirty looking. Making it seem that he had thrown it on the floor for a month before putting in on and not even bothering to have it ironed first. Adelbert looked back on Eberhard's face and saw that smug look again, reminding Adelbert of what Zimmerman had said before. _Any man who knows the Lieutenant Colonel's reputation regarding the opposite gender should be able to figure that one out on their own!_ Adelbert nearly sighed out of disgust and painful recollection. Many memories of Eberhard's attempts to seduce his sister and several younger maids of the palace staff (simultaneously) flooded his mind and made him start to burn in his own anger. Eberhard didn't seem to notice him, as he moved right past him, bidding him to follow him back to the podium.

When they had both arrived at their destination, von Blau ordered the room to take their seats. When all of the officers had done so he turned to Adelbert and asked:

"How far have you gotten?"

"I was just in the middle of the 'Gorge of Foreboding _sir_." Adelbert responded.

"How far in that section?" asked von Blau again.

"I was just about to get to the part about the trolls, _Sir_." Adelbert answered again.

"The trolls!? Hah! We are supposed to give them a proper education _major, _not some silly fairy tales! We will skip that part and move right into the Retaking of the Homelands and get this over with!" Eberhard snorted.

"But sir! We are supposed to teach the men everything about the history of this great tradition! Even leaving that small part out would leave the men confused on—"

"Enough _major_!" von Blau screamed, causing several startled yelps from their audience, "_Trolls_ are a piece of fiction that were integrated into epic poems to appease the simple minds of younger generations! We will continue on to the Retaking of the Homelands and inform these officers about how to teach their men of the traditions behind this silly God forsaken path! Now take a seat, shut up, and do not utter another word in my presence. Do you understand?"

Adelbert was taken aback by the vicious spite that von Blau spoke with. So much so that he couldn't find words to answer him.

"Do. You. Understand!?" von Blau said, slowly as though he were talking to one deprived of their hearing.

The second try around Adelbert had already thought up twelve different arguments, five different sarcastic some-backs, and three very appalling insults to respond to von Blau with. But after his eyes stole a quick glimpse of the men that he was standing in front of, he decided to just drop them all for the possibility of giving the men an education that was at least a little worthwhile.

"Yes sir." he said in a resigned tone.

"Good." Eberhard replied with a crooked grin emerging on his face, "Now go get an extra seat and sit down."

Adelbert did what he was told and placed a new seat in the first row of the group Adalwolf and Zimmerman both sat in. After he had placed himself of the chair, Eberhard continued the seminar.

"Now after a year in the 'Gorge of Foreboding', Gernot Kalbfleisch led his people out of the dreaded canyon and they all proceeded on an attack route to what is now our great capital city. The settlement that had been built there was razed to the ground and replaced by a large wooden fortress that was being used as an outpost for the opposing forces that pursued the group. Kalbfleisch and his army of four hundred ninety men forged boats out of the lumber found on the Western side of the bay and used them as siege weapons to attack the fortress." Eberhard said at a very quick pace, almost like he was trying to finish this seminar at a record speed.

Adelbert made a mental correction of von Blau as he spoke, seeing that he skipped the part where the party was ambushed by the pagans during a thunderstorm in the Gorge and ended up losing half of their numbers while battling between the attacking party and the flooded lowlands that they had to trod through. He also skipped one of the greatest weapons that the group had come across and one of the best kept traditions out of all the traditions that The Path had to it. Adelbert sighed and decided to just get through von Blau's takeover of his seminar without ringing the man's neck. Before Adelbert could even tune his thoughts back to what von Blau was saying it appeared that he had already finished the seminar and was asking for questions. When no questions were asked of him, von Blau dismissed the group for the day and bolted for the door faster than Adelbert had ever seen any man run.

He stood to get a better view of Eberhard as he slammed into the double-doors and threw them open, revealing a young girl, about the age of the ensign that Adelbert had caught falling asleep when he was in charge of the lesson. She wore a red and pink colored dress, and was definitely of noble birth given the fabric. Her hair was raven black and her skin was as pail as snow, another sign of nobility. She smiled seductively when her blue eyes met with von Blau's and they quickly joined hands. With von Blau in the lead, the two ran off together towards the other end of the compound faster than one could blink.

"I told you that Specht saw him run off with some young girl." proclaimed Zimmerman, who now stood next to the prince.

"I distinctly remember the girl I saw having light brown hair!" Adelbert heard Specht say out loud.

"I had rather hopped that he would have kept his harlot-of-the-week off of the compound!" Adelbert responded in disgust.

The lieutenant who had done Adelbert's dirty work when it came to silencing Adalwolf walked up to the two at that moment speaking as he did so.

"Isn't the colonel married? I got to attend the wedding out of some form of gratitude to a service my family performed for their household. If you can call it gratitude to spend an entire week with that twit, I distinctly remember his bride to have blond hair from that day." said the young officer.

"That is because that's not his wife lieutenant." responded Zimmerman.

"Wait! You don't mean to implicate that he is— well you know…" the Lieutenant said while trailing off.

"Trust me lieutenant. The hauptfeldweibel is not implicating anything. He is merely stating a cold hard fact. I had to witness him attempt similar— activities with my sister a few years back. And though she never complied, pretty much everyone knows his agenda when it comes to women and marriage." replied Adelbert.

Adalwolf and several other officers, including the ensign that Adelbert had given so much grief to, all walked up to them at that moment, Adalwolf in the lead.

"Sir, we cannot help but to think that the men in this room have missed a lot of what was supposed to be taught at the end of this seminar. Could you maybe fill us in?" Adalwolf said.

"Yes I can." said Adelbert.

Adelbert walked up to the podium and called the men in the room to sit down. They all did so, rather eagerly, and allowed Adelbert to proceed with what he was going to say.

"Now there is a lot more that you should know about the 'Gorge of Foreboding' than what the colonel was able to teach you." he said, "But since I am running out of time and we have technically been dismissed, I will only tell you of the most important thing that you will need to know." Adelbert paused for a moment to allow the men to absorb what he had said, "There is a tradition that the men of the regiment must all do when in the Gorge, the honoring of the Battle of Foreboding. In the middle of the Gorge is a shine, just a small stone slab placed in the ground like a tombstone. That shine marks the exact place where Baardsson and his people were first ambushed by their pagan adversaries. When each man comes by this shine, they must all halt, salute, and say in a loud firm voice, 'Men of Kalbfleisch. We, your Descendants in the Art of War, Salute You.' Every regiment that has been formed since the first regiment made its march has done this tradition flawlessly, and our regiment must be able to perform it perfectly as to honor our fallen brethren. If you do that, you will be ok. Teach the traditions to your men, as we must all be experts on it by the time we depart. You are all dismissed."

The entire room stood at once and the men started to gradually trickle out of the large mess hall. Adelbert collected his copy of "A Condensed History of the Royal Arendellic Military", and exited the room also. He had half a mind to inform Colonel Schmitt of what von Blau had done, thinking for a short piece of time that the man would actually get punished for it. But then remembering that, knowing Schmitt, _he _would somehow get the blame for this messy ending of a seminar and decided to just let it go and move onto making sure that the enlisted men got taught the right material. He just prayed that he would be able to avoid von Blau like the plaque for the entire hike and never have to cross paths with him again.

* * *

><p><strong>Well here is the end of the first two parter. Guess what? The next few chapters are going to be in a story arc too! aren't I kind? Anyways, please review this story if you like it. And if you don't, review it anyways! Now untile next time (or whenever I sit my ass down and write much less publish the next f*cking chapter) good by!<strong>


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